by Jennie SmithSecondary PrincipalI can’t watch the news anymore. We live in such a fallen, sinful world, and the news on the news is never good. Murders. Robberies. And don’t even get me started on Ebola! There is so much to be scared of, and I can be the biggest scared-y cat of them all. Just the other night, there was a police helicopter going around and around in the middle of the night, and someone was on the megaphone saying unintelligible things. I laid there for hours feeling fear (and listening to the police scanner app I have on my phone) while the rest of my family slept in peace.

Sometimes, I think I must be the only one who experiences this crazy level of fear. Thankfully, I’ve realized that even great heroes of the faith have experienced fear. Adam and Eve hid from God out of fear after they had sinned. Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife on two occasions, motivated by fear. Moses didn’t want to fulfill his calling and tried to talk God out of it…because he was scared. Saul disobeyed God because he feared the people of the land, and Peter had such great fear that he denied Jesus three times.

So, what do we do to combat fear? Call it what it is….Disobedience to the Almighty GodThe Bible has a lot to say on the issue of fear. I saw on Facebook this popular meme…

I‘ve been trying to do some research about the accuracy of this, and most are concluding that there aren’t exactly 365 verses, although it is a nice thought. The most important thing is that God said “Do not fear…” many times, even though ONE time ought to be enough for us! Here is my favorite (emphasis added):Isaiah 41:10 “FEAR NOT, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”If God has told us not to fear, and yet we spend time in fear of the various crisis that can befall us, we are in direct disobedience to Him. And He gives us a reason not to fear….He is our God; He will help us.

Trust, Trust, TrustOur Father is so worthy of our trust. Has he been faithful to you through past trials? Has he sustained you in your times of struggle? Has he provided for you in times of want? Has he comforted you in times of grief? He will never change and will speak to our pain when it arrives again. When we understand that God is in complete control, and has all resources at his command to help us, we can exist at a new level of peace.

Elyse Fitzpatrick, author of the book Overcoming Fear, Worry, and Anxiety (2001), says “God’s sovereignty is the only safe harbor when we’re assailed by the winds of fear, doubt, and worry” (pg. 128). At the time when the fear of the Ebola crisis had me on edge, I googled “sermons on God’s sovereignty” and found an excellent sermon by John Piper. I was so encouraged to be reminded that God is not surprised by any problem that we are faced with and there is not one thing that God can’t handle!Realize that our fear does nothing to help the situation.Did my laying there in bed, awake, listening to the dispatchers talk to the police through the night make me any less in danger? Does imagining my boys coming down with Ebola make my children at any less risk of getting the disease? Jesus said “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:27). Elyse Fitzpatrick (2001) says that worry “can’t change anything. It won’t make you live one more day than God has ordained. It won’t influence whatever you may face in the future. Worry is powerless” (pg. 111). The threats of bad things happening will always exist, but stewing about them does not decrease the chances of them happening to us, it only makes us feel miserable and wastes valuable time.Our only hope lies in the fact that our God is sovereign – He knows all the things that lay before us and He is in complete control of them. Bad things are going to happen. Police helicopters will fly over head. People we love are going to suffer. We may be asked to walk a difficult and terrible road. But He is good, and loving, and will meet us in these trials and give us exactly what we need to endure them. Let us be like the Psalmist who said “I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4).

I have been thinking lately about Peter’s trek upon the waters of the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 14:22-33) thanks to a currently meaningful song by Hillsong United, “Oceans.”* The opening stanza of the song personalizes this experience of one of His disciples.

He calls me out upon the waters, the great unknown, where feet may fail.

Most of us are familiar with this story. Jesus had just finished up what was one of the most incredible miracles He performed while on the earth, feeding over 5000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. It was a desolate place where the people had come to see Him, hear Him and experience His miraculous wonders. It was getting late and He urged the disciples to go on ahead of Him across the Sea. He stayed on shore to dismiss the people and to spend some time in prayer.

Meanwhile the disciples had encountered some problems getting to the other side. The wind was against them and they were rowing with all their might to try to fight it to their destination. Along with the wind, they battled the waves. It must have been a significant hindrance as they had been rowing practically all night and were still a good distance from land.

It was then that Jesus came to them in a manner they were not expecting, walking on the water as though it were pavement, and making much better progress than they were. We are not told, but apparently the disciples assumed Jesus would catch a ride with another boat that was crossing, for they certainly didn’t expect Jesus to come across the water on foot. When they saw Him, their immediate reaction was fear.

I am reminded how easy it is for me to experience fear in the midst of trial and hardship. It is almost my first reaction to anything that I am not expecting. And yet, as in the case of the disciples, it is often at the presence of God’s provision for the trial that I quake the most. When the gracious hand of God is extended to me, I tend to cower in fear.

Once Jesus had identified Himself, very likely using the Personal Name of being that identified Him as God in the flesh, Peter asks Jesus to invite him outside of the boat to walk upon the wind-whipped waves that had been preventing them for getting to shore. I have asked myself why Peter would do this. Who would even think of such a thing at a time like this? Did he think it was really cool and wanted to try it out? Was he impetuous and just blurted out the first thing that came into his head without really thinking through the consequence? Was his faith so large because he had been in the midst of all the miraculous activities earlier that day? Why would he ask to do what, in all other cases, would be impossible? Though we are left to speculate at the ultimate reason, it is obvious that Peter is ready to back up his request with the faith necessary to actually go over the side of the boat at Jesus’ bidding.

Most of us would not ask to be put in a situation of hardship and trial that would test our faith. If you are like me, you have plenty of opportunities to test your trust in God without seeking more. Yet the ride for Peter must have been incredible, albeit brief. Can you imagine putting your full weight upon something that all your experience has shown will not hold your weight and have it now fully support it? It must have been a tremendous faith-exploding experience!

Spirit lead me where my trust is without bordersLet me walk upon the watersWherever You would call meTake me deeper than my feet could ever wanderAnd my faith will be made strongerIn the presence of my Savior

Have you the courage to pray thus? Would the experience of walking upon the water with Jesus be worth the wind and the waves?

Peter walked upon the water for a time, but the scripture tells us that instead of looking at Jesus and pressing

forward toward Him, Peter began to look about himself. He was reminded again of all his experience with water in the past. It had never held him up before. And the wind and waves! These had not ceased just because he was out of the boat. These continued to rise and fall as they had been doing much of the night and now he felt vulnerable outside the safety of the boat. He took his eyes off Jesus and focused upon his circumstances. This is something you and I know well. We know with all our hearts that God is good. We know that He is more than able to do far more abundantly than we can think or imagine. Yet our gaze is drawn with laser-focus to our circumstances and we begin to think these will overwhelm us. We take our focus off the One who knows us and knows everything we are going through and knows the way through. Just like Peter, we began to sink and the old fear comes back once again.

While Peter’s faith waned, it was not completely gone as he knew to whom he needed to cry out. He could have asked the other disciples to throw him a rope or reach out the oar. He could have tried to reverse course and swim back to the boat. But he did not. He cried out to Jesus, “Save me.” Even in the midst of failing faith, he turned to the one place he knew there would be help.

And I will call upon Your nameAnd keep my eyes above the wavesWhen oceans riseMy soul will rest in Your embraceFor I am Yours and You are mine

The reality is, Peter experienced a level of intimate relationship with Jesus that none of the other disciples shared. He was the only one who walked on the water with Jesus. He was the only one who experienced the strong hand of Jesus pulling him up to save him. It is as though each trial we face in our lives is the opportunity to experience anew the grace of salvation. Nothing assures us more that we belong to Him than when we see Him provide in the circumstances that are beyond our own ability.

A couple of observations to ponder:

1. We will experience that call of Jesus to come upon the waters of tribulation many times in our walk with Him.It is the expectation of His disciples.Do not fear.Have faith.

2. He is on the water of tribulation Himself.He is not sending you out alone or into something He has not already conquered Himself.Look for Him in the midst of the wind and waves of the trial you are experiencing.

3. Keep your eyes above the waves and on Him.It is easy and natural to focus on circumstances and try to fix whatever we are dealing with.“Seek first the kingdom of God,… and all these things will be added as well.”(Matt. 6:33)

4. Call out to Him.There is salvation in no other.Though we may think that we can find another solution to our trial, it has most likely been given to us to cause us to trust more fully in Him.

Your grace abounds in deepest watersYour sov’reign hand will be my guideWhere feet may fail and fear surrounds meYou’ve never failed and You won’t start now

It is a widely-circulated belief (apparently spread by people with 3 kids or less) that once you have 3 kids, adding 1 more is a piece of cake. As a new mother of 4, I’m not sure that “a piece of cake” is how I would choose to describe the chaos. This being said, at least I had 9 months to try to prepare for the change. I got the nursery ready, painted rooms, moved furniture around, washed and folded all of the baby clothes, and other major tasks just to get as ready as possible. Even though I did everything I could to prepare, the excitement was slightly tinted with a fear of the unknown. How would our family dynamic change? How would my 18 month old, 4 1/2 yr old, and 8 year old handle having a new baby in the house? How could I ever hope to take all of my children grocery shopping? (Can you relate to the terror the thought invokes?!)

In general, we as people don’t like change, even when the change has the potential to be amazing. It’s why the first year of marriage is so difficult while you are trying to adjust to how someone else does things. It is why we always sit in the same row at church. It’s why some people refuse to move forward with the changing technology. We thrive on having routines. We all like to cling to what we know and what makes us comfortable. However, as the saying goes, “The only constant in life is change.”

So what does the Bible say about change? Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven”. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Not only is change uncomfortable at times, but it is sometimes scary–especially when we face the unknown. It is in those times that our faith is strengthened as we are reminded that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8. How comforting it is, in a world that is constantly changing, to know that our Savior is always the same!

Are you going through a change in your life right now that has tempted you to doubt the sovereignty of our constant and unchanging Savior? Have you lost someone you love? Are you dealing with a sickness or life-changing circumstance? Are you anxious about a new job, a move, or a decision that threatens to turn your world upside-down?

We know that there is a season for everything and that change is inevitable, but rather than fearing change, let us embrace the plans that God has for us. Let us remember to put our trust in a steadfast and unchanging God who loves us perfectly and works everything for our ultimate good.